The 92nd Oscars was an extravaganza of film, fashion, and in recent years, political statements. In what seems to be becoming a tradition, the Oscars did not have a host for the second year in a row, after last year’s Kevin Hart controversy. Here are some of the highlights.
Star-studded and all glitz and glam, the 3-hour show featured 24 categories. Going in, Joker led with the most nominations with 11. “The Irishman”, “1917″ and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” received 10 nominations each, and “Jojo Rabbit”, “Little Women”, “Marriage Story” and “Parasite” received six each.
By the end of the night, “Joker” won two, “The Irishman” didn’t win any, “1917″ won three and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” won two, “Jojo Rabbit” won one, “Little Women” won one, “Marriage Story” won one and “Parasite” won three.
“Parasite” made history as the first foreign language movie to win Best Picture. Its director, Boon Joon Ho, not only won Best Director, but won Twitter’s heart as he looked at his Oscar very lovingly after winning Best Original Screenplay.
The show started off with Janelle Monae singing “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” as a tribute to Mr. Rogers. At the end of her performance, Monae addressed the audience, saying “I’m so happy to be here as a black queer artist.”
Steve Martin and Chris Rock then bantered about there being no hosts for the show, and they blamed Twitter. They also noted that women were missing the Best Director category and reminded everyone that there was only one black nominee in the major categories.
Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor. Phoenix gave an emotional speech about inequality, injustice, environmental care and compassion. The crowd seemed behind him until he talked about human privilege, claiming we “feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow” and other controversial statements about humans abusing the natural resources. He ended his speech by a quote from his deceased brother: “Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow.” The crowd gave Phoenix a standing ovation as he left the stage.
Eminem also unexpectedly performed “Lose Yourself,” a Best Soundtrack winner in 2002 for the movie “8 Mile”. Eminem did not attend that night in 2002 because he did not believe he was going to win. This year, the Academy did a video tribute to past hit soundtracks and asked him to perform “Lose Yourself,” since he never got to. Eminem agreed it’s better to do it 18 years later than never.
Best Supporting Actor went to Brad Pitt for his role in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. Best Supporting Actress went to Laura Dern for “Marriage Story”. Dern won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for the same role.
Another performance that wowed the audience was Idina Menzel singing Frozen 2’s hit “Into The Unknown” with Elsa’s from around the world. Also, Billie Eilish and Finneas covered The Beatles’ “Yesterday” in memory of lost celebrities, including Kirk Douglas and Kobe Bryant. Randy Newman sang “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from Toy Story 4. Chrissy Metz sang “I’m Standing With You”. Cynthia Erivo performed “Stand Up” from Harriet. Elton John performed “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman”. The song also won Best Original Song.
During the presentation speech for Best Costume Design, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig broke out into song to present the award. The camera then panned to Billie Eilish, whose humorously disgruntled reaction was immediately captured on-screen and inspired many memes on Twitter.
Midway through, “Pitch Perfect” star Utkarsh Ambudkar recapped the show in a rap, which garnered him praise mainly because much of it was written as the show was happening. James Corden and Rebel Wilson came out dressed like cats to reference their movie “Cats”. Brie Larson, Gal Gadot and Sigourney Weaver gave an “all women are superheroes” speech. The show also featured its first female maestro, Elmear Nooneis.
Tom Hanks announced The Academy Museum. The museum opens its door December 14th of this year.
Here’s the complete list of winners:
- Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
- Best Animated Movie: “Toy Story 4”
- Best Animated Short Film: “Hair Love”
- Best Original Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won for “Parasite”
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Taika Waititi for “Jojo Rabbit”
- Best Short Film: “The Neighbor’s Window”
- Best Production Design: Barbara Ling for “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”
- Best Costume Design: Jacqueline Furran for “Little Women”
- Best Documentary Feature: Steven Bognar, Julia and Jeff Reichert for “American Factory”
- Best Documentary Short Subject: Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva for “Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl)”
- Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern for “Marriage Story”
- Best Sound Editing: Donald Sylvester for “Ford v. Ferrari”
- Best Sound Mixing: Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson for “1917”
- Best Cinematographer: Roger Deakins for “The Irishman”
- Best Film Editing: Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland for “Ford v Ferrari”
- Best Visual Effects: Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuoy for “1917”
- Best Makeup and Hair: Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker for “Bombshell”
- Best International Feature Film: “Parasite”
- Best Original Score: Hildur Gudnadottir for “Joker”
- Best Original Song: “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” by Elton John and Bernie Taupin from Rocketman
- Best Director: Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite”
- Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix for “Joker”
- Best Actress: Renee Zellwegger for “Judy”
- Best Picture: “Parasite”
Article by Nour Faragallah of Walter Johnson High School
Photo Courtesy of Flickr